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Scientific Method

The scientific method is an empirical method used to acquire knowledge that has been central to the development of science since the 17th century. It involves making observations and formulating hypotheses based on those observations, experimentally testing predictions derived from the hypotheses, and refining or eliminating the hypotheses based on the experimental results. Key aspects of the scientific method include making falsifiable hypotheses, designing experiments to test these hypotheses, and revising hypotheses based on the outcome of experiments. While procedures vary between fields, the underlying process generally involves conjecturing explanations, deriving testable predictions from hypotheses, and conducting experiments or observations to evaluate those predictions.

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38 views2 pages

Scientific Method

The scientific method is an empirical method used to acquire knowledge that has been central to the development of science since the 17th century. It involves making observations and formulating hypotheses based on those observations, experimentally testing predictions derived from the hypotheses, and refining or eliminating the hypotheses based on the experimental results. Key aspects of the scientific method include making falsifiable hypotheses, designing experiments to test these hypotheses, and revising hypotheses based on the outcome of experiments. While procedures vary between fields, the underlying process generally involves conjecturing explanations, deriving testable predictions from hypotheses, and conducting experiments or observations to evaluate those predictions.

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AUWAL YUSUF
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Scientific method

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For other uses, see Scientific method (disambiguation). "Scientific research" redirects here. For the
publisher, see Scientific Research Publishing. For broader coverage of this topic, see Research.

The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the
development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries;
see the article history of scientific method for additional detail.) It involves careful observation, applying
rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one
interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such
observations; the testability of hypotheses, experimental and the measurement-based statistical testing
of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on
the experimental findings. These are principles of the scientific method, as distinguished from a
definitive series of steps applicable to all scientific enterprises.[1][2][3]

The scientific method is often represented as an ongoing process. This diagram represents one variant,
and there are many others.

Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, the underlying process is frequently the
same from one field to another. The process in the scientific method involves making conjectures
(hypothetical explanations), deriving predictions from the hypotheses as logical consequences, and then
carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions.[a][4] A hypothesis is a
conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while seeking answers to the question. The hypothesis might
be very specific, or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments or
studies. A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible
outcome of an experiment or observation that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis;
otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be meaningfully tested.[5]

The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations[A][a][b] agree with or conflict with
the expectations deduced from a hypothesis.[6]: Book I, [6.54] pp.372, 408 [b] Experiments can take
place anywhere from a garage to a remote mountaintop to CERN's Large Hadron Collider. There are
difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is often
presented as a fixed sequence of steps, it represents rather a set of general principles.[7] Not all steps
take place in every scientific inquiry (nor to the same degree), and they are not always in the same
order.[8][9]

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